Letter: Microcredit can help the West

Neal Ascherson's excellent report on microcredit, "The bank which gave the poor the chance to look after each other" (26 January), was misleading in reference to the potential of this innovative system of credit for low-income people in the "developed" world. Grameen principles can work very well in run-down communities in the West as hundreds of single parents in Chicago who have had welfare through Grameen-type schemes testify.

Our research suggests it will work well in the UK, too, and funding has been secured to launch a UK pilot. Our Full Circle Fund aims to target the estimated 30 per cent of people increasingly excluded from economic activity. A lot of women who failed at school never come forward for further education or training. If you live on the breadline in the UK you have to be enterprising; many women are doing bits and pieces on the side. We want to help them turn those undervalued bits and pieces into proper businesses and to help them recognise and develop skills that are needed in the job market. WEETU staff have already spent two years researching the project. We will spend the next few months further developing procedures, partnerships and reviewing experiences in the United States. The first pilot scheme will be launched in Norwich in September.

Erika Watson

Women's Employment, Enterprise & Training Unit

Norwich